Sunday, October 24, 2010

Scary Car Dreams

Commuting by car+trailer: Very Scary

In this dream, I drove my car to work pulling a rented trailer. The purpose behind pulling the rented trailer to work was not clear, although it felt like it may have been a Friday, with the trailer loaded with some equipment for camping, or possibly an extended mountain biking adventure. It was a big trailer, so it must have been for a big adventure. As in many dreams, it seems that I had not thought through the whole thing very carefully, since I had to park the car+trailer in the parking garage. Since I have been commuting by bicycle for so many months, though, it's at least plausible that I wouldn't think about the challenges of parking a car+trailer in the parking structure.

When I got to the garage, most of the spaces were taken, and it dawned on me after I had squeezed through the gate that it would have been hard to park the car+trailer in the garage even if I had thought ahead and arrived early. When I saw that any combination of regulation spaces that may have admitted my car+trailer were already taken, I opted for a less-than-regulation, off-to-the-side, on-the-slope, pull-in/out parking arrangement. In my haste I may not have set the parking brake or turned the front wheels in the best direction for parking a car+trailer in that type of situation.

Just before lunch time, all the phones in the office stopped working. About five minutes later, the sound of sirens outside: police, fire, rescue. Like most other people, I decided it was time to head out to lunch. I walked toward the parking garage, again not thinking it through, then saw that the hubbub was about some sort of accident near the entry gate of the garage, so I opted to walk next door to grab a slice of pizza.

While waiting in line for my slice, more information about what had happened at the garage began arriving in my ears. There had been an accident at the gates. Someone had seen a car on its side. A passing van that had children in it had been involved. The building's phone system had been put out of commission in the collision, affecting the customers who were supported by the system, and they didn't know how long it would take to fix the phones since there was a police investigation underway.

Then someone mentioned that the car on its side had a rental trailer attached to it. I got one of those bad feelings in my gut. Really bad. Then they added that more ambulances had to be called to haul away all the kids who had been injured in the van when the car with the trailer had rolled through the parking garage gates, out into the traffic lanes, and into the van. Police were combing the area for the driver of the car+trailer as a hit and run.

I woke up in alarm, obsessing about what had happened. Police combing the area? Hit and run? Why had I parked the car+trailer in the garage so haphazardly? How many kids? How long would the phones be down? Were customers firing us? I pictured myself walking out of the pizza joint to face the music. My palms began to sweat. I wished I had commuted by bike as usual instead. Why oh why? Yikes. Get up. Go ride.

It was only a dream. Tour de Tempe cleansed all that junk right out. And limom, you're right, pizza must have been one of those reassurance symbols popped up by my psyche to try to keep me anchored somewhere while a dream like that spun its way through my sleep.

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Thriving on two wheels

I commute by bicycle in Phoenix, Arizona, a place suited for riding bicycles of all types, with weather, mountains, roads, canals, and paths to keep me forever spinning. My favorite bike tools are an open mind, anger control, curiosity, compassion, common ground, and the search for knowledge. With coffee.

Dedicated to the Lost and Bold

Arizona 3 foot law ARS §28-735. Overtaking bicycles; civil penalties A. When overtaking and passing a bicycle proceeding in the same direction, a person driving a motor vehicle shall exercise due care by leaving a safe distance between the motor vehicle and the bicycle of not less than three feet until the motor vehicle is safely past the overtaken bicycle. B. If a person violates this section and the violation results in a collision causing: 1. Serious physical injury as defined in section 13-105 to another person, the violater is subject to a civil penalty of up to five hundred dollars. 2. Death to another person, the violater is subject to a civil penalty of up to one thousand dollars. C. Subsection B of this section does not apply to a bicyclist who is injured in a vehicular traffic lane when a designated bicycle lane or path is present and passable